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“Actively resisting fascism.”

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Mitt Romney has resurrected the ghost of Solyndra in another ham-fisted attempt to slam President Obama:

Now running for president, Romney, a former venture capitalist, has repeatedly brought up Solyndra, hopeful that images of last year’s FBI raid and dozens of embarrassing emails will damage an Obama White House that has managed to survive its first term without a major scandal.

“I’d like to look at Barack Obama’s record,” Romney said last month as he met with reporters in flight from New Hampshire to South Carolina. “So as we talk about my experience in the private sector, I’ll talk about his experience – he’s now been a venture capitalist in Solyndra, Fisker, Tesla, and he’s been a private equity guy in General Motors and Chrysler.”

For instance, Romney (during his time as MA governor – ed.) gave $1.5 million to solar company Konarka and $2.5 million to Evergreen Solar. Romney even announced plans to remove $15 million from the state’s renewable energy trust fund and to allot it for the development of a private venture capital outfit that would financially support green companies.

However, Evergreen Solar eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011. Several other companies that received aid from the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund also met a similar fate. For example, the fuel cell company CTP Hydrogen Inc., which also was backed by this green fund, laid off most of its staff of 10 individuals and closed its doors in 2008. The Colorado plant of Protonex Technology Corp. – a fuel cell company that additionally was an initial member of the green energy fund – further facilitated layoffs in 2010 despite receiving government aid.

At this point, sensible people might very well ask why Romney is pushing this meme given his own experiences in doing the same thing. Some points to consider:

Standard GOP response to anything and everything Obama is to reject, deny, castigate, mitigate, and, where necessary, LIE. They know their supporters either won’t know or won’t care about the truth; Solyndra is a prima facie example, and is only one of a multitude of issues they’ve done this with.

It’s been noted that Romney seems almost giddy when discussing Obama and Solyndra’s failure – even though he has been involved in the VERY SAME THING. He’s just fine doing this because he knows the FerengiMedia™, for the most part, is not going to call him out; also, this allows him to pivot back toward Big Oil, a longtime GOP stalwart.

The thought of another “MBA President” leaves me spectacularly underwhelmed, but I’d rather have a venture capitalist at the helm than a VULTURE capitalist.